Method and System for Providing Enhanced Caller Identification and Privacy Management

1. A method for processing a call from a calling party at a calling communication station to a called communication station in a communication network, the method comprising: receiving the call at a switch; activating a terminating attempt trigger at the switch in response to the call; transmitting a terminating attempt query from the switch to a service control point (SCP) of the communication network in response to the terminating attempt trigger; at the SCP, in response to the terminating attempt query, determining whether standard caller identification for the calling communication station can be provided to the called communication station; if standard caller identification for the calling communication station can not be provided, retrieving call control information from a SCP database; determining from the SCP database a recipient privacy level associated with an intended recipient of the call; returning the call control information and the recipient privacy level to the switch; in response to the call control information, routing the call from the switch to a service platform of the communication system; at the service platform, in response to the call control information and the recipient privacy level, routing the call and all calls to a voice messaging system when the recipient privacy level corresponds to a selected highest privacy level, when the recipient privacy level corresponds to a selected enhanced privacy level, for the call and all calls transmitting a request for audible caller identification information to the calling communication station, transmitting the audible caller identification, if provided, to the called communication station, and further processing the call in response to subsequent input from the called communication station, and when the recipient privacy level corresponds to a selected standard privacy level and when the standard caller identification information cannot be provided to the called communication station, transmitting the request for audible caller identification information for the call to the calling communication station and transmitting the audible caller identification, if provided, to the called communication station, and further processing the call in response to subsequent input from the called communication station.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising: determining an intended recipient of the call from among a plurality of callable parties at the called communication station based on the detected signaling information.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising: transmitting to the calling party a request for an indication of the intended recipient, and receiving the indication and associating the indication with a privacy level for the intended recipient.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising initiating a prompt for the calling party to enter a key press as the indication of the intended recipient.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein, at the service platform, when the recipient privacy level corresponds to a selected blocking privacy level and when the call control information indicates that caller identification information for the call is blocked, terminating the call without completion to the called communication station, and connecting the call with the called communication station when the call control information indicates that caller identification information for the call is not blocked.

6. In a Service Control Point (SCP) of a communications network, a method for processing a call from a calling party at a calling communication station to a called communication station in a network, the method comprising: receiving the call at switching equipment of the network; at a Service Switching Point (SSP) of the network, generating terminating attempt query in response to an attempt to complete the call from the SSP to the called communication station; suspending completion of the call to the called communication station; receiving the terminating attempt query from the SSP of the communication network, the query including a calling party identification parameter and requesting return of standard Caller ID information for the call; in response to the terminating attempt query, determining if standard Caller ID information can be provided to the called telephone station; if the standard Caller ID information can not be provided, detecting a privacy level for the called communication station, the privacy level being one of a privacy schedule established by a called party, a privacy mode selected by a called party, and a privacy level bypass designator for bypassing one or more selected privacy levels; providing call control information to the SSP in accordance with the detected privacy level, the call control information controlling routing of the call to a service platform based on the privacy level and causing the service platform generate a request to the calling party for audible caller identification information for at least one specified privacy level, the call control information further causing the service platform to record any audible response from the calling party as the audible caller identification information and to play the audible caller identification information from the service platform to the called party and detect call completion instructions from the called party.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the call control information causes the service platform generate the request to the calling party for audible caller identification information for all calls when the privacy level corresponds to an enhanced privacy level, and for calls for which the standard Caller ID information can not be provided when the privacy level corresponds to a standard privacy level.